(CBS Primetime, 1971 - 1974)
[After the first "Dick Van Dyke Show" became a syndication classic,
and the spinoff series "Mary Tyler Moore Show" also became a hit,
Dick Van Dyke by then had acted in several big motion picture
projects including "Mary Poppins" and "Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang"
and had been enjoying a private, semi-retired life in the community
of Cave Creek, Arizona -- near Phoenix...
But six years after his first series went off the network, he
was finally lured back to doing another sitcom on the small
screen by the idea of a new series which would be filmed at
a studio near his home, and would also be created by veteran
writer/producer Carl Reiner who had created the first "Dick
Van Dyke Show";
In the new series Van Dyke played "Dick Preston", host of a
local talk show; Hope Lange played Van Dyke's wife; after two
years during which the series was actually filmed in the studio
near Phoenix, the plot changed that he got a job in Los Angeles
on a Soap Opera, and filming also moved to Los Angeles;
Although never a syndication hit like the first show, this one
lasted for three years in primetime, and did a respectable job
of comedy during that time;
And as truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction, after this
series went off the air, and Van Dyke did a few more movie projects
he was lured back again at age 68 to play a medical examiner for
yet another series, the 1993 series "Diagnosis Murder" -- which
again demonstrated what a durable and likeable performer he is...]